scholarly journals Taking subjectivity and reflexivity seriously: Implications of social constructionism for researching volunteer motivation

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
E Weenink ◽  
Todd Bridgman
Keyword(s):  
Social Constructionism ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Third Sector ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Social Constructionist ◽  
Volunteer Motivation ◽  
Johns Hopkins University ◽  
The Social ◽  
Third Sector Research ◽  
Active Membership

© 2016, International Society for Third-Sector Research and The Johns Hopkins University. This paper explores the contributions a social constructionist paradigm can make for researching volunteer motivation, by reflecting on an active membership study of volunteer netball coaches at a New Zealand high school. Social constructionism is based on philosophical assumptions which differ from those of positivism and post-positivism, the dominant paradigms for understanding and representing volunteer motivation. It highlights the social processes through which people give meaning to their motives and view researchers as necessarily implicated in this meaning-making process. Through a critique of the extant literature on volunteer motivation and an illustration of the insights of social constructionism from our empirical study, we consider how volunteer motivation research could be different if subjectivity and reflexivity were taken more seriously.

scholarly journals Taking subjectivity and reflexivity seriously: Implications of social constructionism for researching volunteer motivation

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
E Weenink ◽  
Todd Bridgman
Keyword(s):  
Social Constructionism ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Third Sector ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Social Constructionist ◽  
Volunteer Motivation ◽  
Johns Hopkins University ◽  
The Social ◽  
Third Sector Research ◽  
Active Membership

© 2016, International Society for Third-Sector Research and The Johns Hopkins University. This paper explores the contributions a social constructionist paradigm can make for researching volunteer motivation, by reflecting on an active membership study of volunteer netball coaches at a New Zealand high school. Social constructionism is based on philosophical assumptions which differ from those of positivism and post-positivism, the dominant paradigms for understanding and representing volunteer motivation. It highlights the social processes through which people give meaning to their motives and view researchers as necessarily implicated in this meaning-making process. Through a critique of the extant literature on volunteer motivation and an illustration of the insights of social constructionism from our empirical study, we consider how volunteer motivation research could be different if subjectivity and reflexivity were taken more seriously.

Early career development in the public sector: Lessons from a social constructionist perspective

2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 43-51
Author(s):  
Todd Bridgman ◽  
Annie De’ath
Keyword(s):  
Social Constructionism ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Social Constructionist ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
State Sector ◽  
Recent Graduates ◽  
Context Specific ◽  
Collective Construction

This article explores the contribution a social constructionist paradigm can make to the study of career, through a small-scale empirical study of recent graduates employed in New Zealand’s state sector. A social constructionist lens denies the possibility of an individualised, generalised understanding of ‘career’, highlighting instead its local, contingent character as the product of social interaction. Our respondents’ collective construction of career was heavily shaped by a range of context-specific interactions and influences, such as the perception of a distinctive national identity, as well as by their young age and state sector location. It was also shaped by the research process, with us as researchers implicated in these meaning-making processes. Social constructionism shines a light on aspects of the field that are underplayed by mainstream, scientific approaches to the study of career, and therefore has valuable implications for practitioners, as well as scholars.

scholarly journals LEGAL DISCOURSE IN THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONIST PARADIGM (construction of interethnic relations)

2016 ◽  
pp. 117-123
Author(s):  
T. V. Dubrovskaya
Keyword(s):  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Social Constructionism ◽  
National Policy ◽  
Legal Discourse ◽  
Social Constructionist ◽  
Discursive Practice ◽  
Discursive Construction ◽  
Interethnic Relations ◽  
The Social ◽  
Object Of Study

The paper presents some results of the research that is aimed at revealing the mechanisms of discursive construction of international and interethnic relations in different types of discourse. The object of study in this fragment is the legal discourse, which is viewed within the paradigm of social constructionism. The author consolidates studies of law as discursive practice and outlines an appropriate methodological perspective, which presupposes the interpretation of legal discourse in social and axiological context, participation of society in legal-discursive practices, and the essential role of legal discourse in power relations. To perform the analysis of the ‘Strategy of State national policy of the Russian Federation’, the author applies the categories of social actor, implicature, specifying and vagueness, which are typically exploited in Critical Discourse Analysis. The results demonstrate that the document in question categorises the participants in interethnic relations and constructs a few pairs of interacting parties. The state is represented as a key actor in interethnic relations. The document also operates the discursively opposite mechanisms of specifying and vagueness to problematise certain aspects of the relations. Axiologically laden abstract categories and implicature also construct interethnic relations.

scholarly journals Employment, environmental pollution and working class life in Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina

2013 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vanesa Castán Broto
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Environmental Pollution ◽  
Political Ecology ◽  
Bosnia And Herzegovina ◽  
Social Constructionism ◽  
Local Environment ◽  
Local Economy ◽  
Social Constructionist ◽  
The Social

People's experiences of a polluted space are intimately linked with their relative concerns for quality of life and livelihoods. Thus quality of environment and security of employment are two closely related issues in social conflicts over environmental pollution. Rather than being implicated in a trade-off relationship, environmental quality and job provision are both part of the life of community residents. Bringing together the literature on the political ecology of environmental conflicts and the social constructionist literature on public perceptions of environmental risks, this article argues that the working class and disadvantaged sections of society are often confronted with alliances between the industry, institutions and other stakeholders which may serve to legitimate a particular configuration of things in which the appropriation of some resources by the industry is regarded as legitimate. However, these arrangements are unstable: they are subject to constant renegotiation between the social groups implicated. Thus, how the emergence of concerns about the local environment relates to preoccupations about the state of the local economy is related to a process whereby these relationships are constructed and re-negotiated. These questions are analyzed using a case study of environmental pollution from coal-energy production in the city of Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The case shows that both concerns for the environment and unemployment are articulated simultaneously in the context of industrial pollution, together with the redefinition of the socio-economic landscapes of post-industrial Tuzla.Keywords: Environmental pollution, employment, working-class life, social constructionism, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Expanding the Vision of the Social Constructionist Debates: Creating Relevance for Practitioners

1995 ◽  
Vol 76 (7) ◽  
pp. 395-407 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cynthia Franklin
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Practice ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Constructionism ◽  
Social Constructionist ◽  
Science Methods ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
Social Science Methods ◽  
The Social ◽  
Practice Models ◽  
Social Work Practitioners

The term social constructionism has been associated with the research debates among academic social workers. Recently Atherton offered an analysis of the research debates in an attempt to communicate the significance of these debates to social work practitioners. He argued that these debates are tearing the profession apart. A major limitation of Atherton's analysis is that it failed to provide relevance for practitioners by making connections between underlying themes of the debates and important parallel developments within clinical practice fields. The author offers a different interpretation of the research debates, viewing them as a metadebate about science and social science methods. Drawing distinctions between social constructionism and constructivism expands Atherton's discussion, defining their relationship to both research and practice. Examples from practice models are used to illustrate how constructionism and constructivism are significant concepts and are being used across disciplines as metatheories for practice.

scholarly journals The management of social problems talk in a support group

2013 ◽  
Vol 25 (spe) ◽  
pp. 101-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrezza Gomes Peretti ◽  
Pedro Pablo Sampaio Martins ◽  
Carla Guanaes-Lorenzi
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Support Group ◽  
Social Transformation ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Disease Process ◽  
Social Constructionist ◽  
The Social ◽  
Transformation Processes

The comprehension of the health-disease process from a multifactorial perspective has allowed important transformations in the healthcare practices. In this article, we discuss the use of the support group as a resource for mental health care, analyzing how conversations about social issues are managed in this context. Based on contributions from the social constructionist movement, we analyzed the transcripts of the conversations developed in meetings of a support group offered to patients of a mental health outpatient clinic. The analysis of the process of meaning making indicates that the discourse of the social influence on mental health is not legitimized, due to a predominant individualistic discourse, which psychologizes care and is centered on the emotional analysis of the problems of the quotidian. We argue that this mode of management brings limits to the construction of the group as a device for promoting autonomy and encouraging the social transformation processes.

Expanding the gerontological imagination on ethnicity: conceptual and theoretical perspectives

2014 ◽  
Vol 35 (5) ◽  
pp. 935-960 ◽  
Author(s):  
SANDRA TORRES
Keyword(s):  
Social Constructionism ◽  
Ethnic Diversity ◽  
Research Policy ◽  
Social Constructionist ◽  
Western World ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
Gerontological Research ◽  
The Social ◽  
Ageing Populations

ABSTRACTThe globalisation of international migration has increased the ethnic diversity of most ageing populations across the Western world. This has implications for gerontological research, policy and practice, and puts our understandings of ethnicity to the test. This paper presents the different perspectives that inform ethnicity scholarship (the essentialist/primordial perspective, the structuralist/circumstantialist perspective and social constructionism) and suggests that the way in which we regard ethnicity has implications for how gerontological research is designed, how policies for old age are formulated and how gerontological practice is shaped. Through a review of contemporary gerontological research on ethnicity published in some of gerontology's main journals, the paper discusses some of the trends observed and concludes that most research seems to be informed by essentialism and structuralism. This suggests that the gerontological imagination on ethnicity has yet to be informed by the latest developments in ethnicity scholarship. The paper therefore urges gerontologists to broaden their understanding of ethnicity and suggests that much could be gained if we were to let the social constructionist perspective on ethnicity and the notion of intersectionality be sources of inspiration for the gerontological imagination on ethnicity.

scholarly journals Social Representations of Foreign Aid: Exploring Meaning-Making in Aid Practice in Sulu, Southern Philippines

2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Aid ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Social Representations ◽  
Social Constructionist ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
Social Object ◽  
The Social ◽  
Key Informant ◽  
Peace And Development

Conceptualising foreign aid as a controversial social object, this study utilised Social Representations Theory as a social constructionist framework to understand the meanings that arise from people's social interactions in relation to foreign aid practice in a particular historical, political and social context such as the province of Sulu in Southern Philippines. Key informant interviews and group discussions with representatives of various social groups involved in the practice of foreign aid in Sulu were conducted. Research data were examined using thematic analysis. Results showed two interrelated representational systems about foreign aid in the province. First, foreign aid was understood as a valuable resource for peace and development in Sulu. Second, based on narratives of aid practice in the province, the same social object was also represented as a profiteering enterprise that operates at various levels of the aid structure. Results are discussed in terms of meaning-making in aid practice; the possible psychological, social and political consequences of the social meaning of foreign aid as a profiteering enterprise; and the potential of these social representations for reflection, critique and transformation in the practice of foreign aid.

Object-Ions: From Technological Determinism towards Geographies of Relations

1996 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 635-657 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nick Bingham
Keyword(s):  
Social Constructionism ◽  
Black Box ◽  
Social Constructionist ◽  
Technological Determinism ◽  
Rightful Place ◽  
Strong Current ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
Modern Perspective

In spite of the recent proliferation of theoretically informed writings on all things ‘cyber,’- it remains the case that much of the literature on ‘electronic spaces’ is characterised by a strong current of technological determinism. That is to say, it assumes and reproduces a stable and matter-of-fact distinction between the material/technical and the social such that changes in the former are supposed somehow to ‘impact’ on the latter. In those accounts which eschew this position, authors tend to employ an approach towards technology that might broadly be termed social constructionist. After Latour, I argue that, in that they operate according to the same ‘logic’, both these positions—technological determinism and social constructionism—remain within a ‘modern’ worldview. I propose that if we are to (and I argue that we must) tell stories of a world in which what the moderns refer to as the ‘material’ and the ‘social’ are always already bound together, always already binding together, we require other vocabularies than those which divide and ‘black box’ the world into easy categories, vocabularies that are able to grant all sorts of things their rightful place in the (co)construction of the world. Drawing on a variety of writers, I suggest that one element of these other vocabularies might be what I term a ‘materialist semiotics’. Having elaborated certain strands of what this could mean, I offer some tentative accounts of what our ‘virtual geographies’ might look like from an a modern perspective.

scholarly journals A postmodern perspective regarding older adults’ oral health

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 741-748
Author(s):  
Alexandre Favero Bulgarelli ◽  
Fabiana Costa Machado Zacharias ◽  
Soraya Fernandes Mestriner ◽  
Ione Carvalho Pinto
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Oral Health ◽  
Older People ◽  
Social Constructionism ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Social Constructionist ◽  
Health It ◽  
The Past ◽  
Theoretical Support ◽  
The Social

Abstract This article aims to comprehend meaning assigned to oral health, by means of older adults discourses, supported by a Social Constructionist perspective. This is a qualitative study with a descriptive and comprehensive design based on the Social Constructionism theoretical support conducted by means of interviews with 19 older adults. Data were analysed by means of a Discourse Analysis with identification of Interpretative Repertoires, which structured the meanings proposed to oral health. It were created repertories to disclosure possible meanings assigned to the oral health by older people as: having a clean mouth; having good comprehensive/general health; having a beautiful smile and oral health well-being condition; and suffering in the past and accepting pain. The meaning assigned to oral health by older people, in a social constructionist perspective, allow us to comprehend the subjectivity behind oral health of older people, which can guide health professionals’ approaches to deal with it.

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